I generally make this assumption that I live in a Democracy. This assumption is often challenged. Still this blog is my Freedom of Expression. It is my space and it sets my SPIRIT FREE.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

The Office Idlers

"General Profile"

Common Name of the Species – The Office IdlersScientific Name of the Species – Homo Inert Sapiens Loaferious(A modern mutation of modern human being. It becomes inert when reacted with any kind of workplace & are found loafing around coffee vending machines)Found in – All continents except Antarctica; because the catalyst ‘Office’ is not present in AntarcticaPopulation – 99.99% of the entire human population (0.01% constitutes intelligent bloggers like me)

"Evolution"

This species evolved from human species (Homo sapiens & Homo erectus) during late 18th century and early 19th century which coincided with the Industrial Revolution. The mutations started taking place when major changes in agriculture, manufacturing and transportation took place. The changes triggered a chain reaction which altered the socioeconomic and cultural landscape and more office spaces emerged. Britain was the place of origin of this species. Initially the Homo sapiens at other places were not affected. But with rampant colonization by British, the mutations started rearing their ugly heads all across the world. The evolution has hastened in last two decades because of emergence of services sector and that too in densely populated countries like India.

"Identification"

It is common knowledge that ‘The Office Idlers’ outnumber normal human beings by 9999 times (See % in Population); it is still very difficult to identify them from normal human beings. This happens because they have developed special survival skills which create an impression that workplace doesn’t make them inert. Also the creatures belonging to this species don’t identify others of the same species because they fear that their own mask of diligence may peel off. So it is safely assumed that everybody is an ‘Office Idler’, but nobody acknowledges it and nobody accepts it. This has made things uncomfortable for normal human beings and tempts them to give in to the loafing mutations. Still intelligent bloggers have found out some fool proof traits to identify this obnoxious species. Some of those traits are mentioned below –

1. Vending Machine Prowlers – The Office Idlers’ favorite hang out place is the nearest coffee vending machine. Most of the times they are found talking loudly near these machines, discussing things animatedly with the other Idlers. The topics of discussion sound intelligent but they are remotely linked to their work.

2. Tech Crap Savvy – This species is highly tech crap savvy. The scrutiny of their laptops shows that they have devised ways to overcome all firewalls installed by their IT administrators. This helps them to create an impression of industriousness while they are actually chatting away their time, downloading music, and checking their mail boxes and Facebook profile several times a day.

3. Meetings Antics – They call meetings at the drop of the hat. They would call meetings for the issues which can be solved on the phone itself. They need to convene meetings to decide on issues like the performance of the printer of the office. Even if meeting is really important, they would be the ones who would discuss everything else apart from work like evening snacks, the hottest girl or guy in office, bitching about boss and complaining about too many meetings happening everyday.

4. Time Illusions – This species have an excellent control on creating time illusions. They are highly punctual about their lunch time and coffee breaks. They would stay back in office to surf net but would claim that they have so much work that they are hard pressed for time. They create an illusion that they spend 16-20 hours in office, but the reality is their productive work time is 2-3 hours a day. It’s very difficult to identify this trait, but a trained eye can see it.

5. Desk Manners – Their desk manners can be classified into two types. There are ones whose desks are spic n span – totally mess free. Now such manners are practiced by novice idlers, because it is an easy give away of their real species. There are others whose desks are stacked up with all kinds of documents so that they can disguise their inactivity behind them. Just ask them for a particular document. The idler wouldn’t be able to find it easily as he/she hasn’t touched that stack of documents for ages. He/she would also request you to give him/her 24 hours notice for retrieval of documents.

6. SOP Adherence – Whenever idlers are questioned about non achievement or non completion of something; they would generally attribute it to their rigorous adherence to the Standard Operating Procedures. Now no sane human being can really argue with an Idler over that.

My research on this species is a continuous process. I have also started doing some experiments on myself to get results in a controlled environment. Today I tried to put myself into their shoes by writing this blog before leaving the office. And I must say results are showing that Office Idling is highly addictive. I would be back with my next set of postulates and results soon.